Geburtstag (Birthday) in Germany

The strawberry looks
like a gummi bear :-D

I turned 23 yesterday and I got to get a little taste of how Germans celebrate birthdays. Back home, I'm used to celebrating birthdays on whichever day is convenient for the family to get together. That could mean we celebrate the weekend before or after the actual date. Sometimes our family even plans the birthday celebration for months before or even after because that's when everyone can be together. In Germany, that doesn't happen. A birthday is not celebrated before or after the birth date. It's considered bad luck to even wish someone a "Happy Birthday" before their birthday.

Ben asked me before my birthday, "So, are we celebrating your birthday the German style or the American style?" We ended up doing kind of a mixture. (Surprising, huh?)

Strawberry lemon cake
My favorite kind of cake. Reminds me of home.
<3
(3 year streak now. Grandma
made my first one, then Mom made it last year
and now I make it.)

I got to Skype my family Sunday night before my birthday and it was so great to be able to see my mom, Shan, (and Flash). It's during family get-together times like birthdays (& graduations) that make me homesick. I also got to eat the yummy birthday cake. No worries, we didn't eat the whole thing ourselves. We're sharing with some friends. But I have to say, that's definitely another benefit of having family around--don't have to go hunting for people to help you eat cake. :-D

He's goofy. Think he was pretty
excited too.

I had German class Monday morning. I just love the people I learn German with~ so much diversity and we're just plain goofy sometimes. On my birthday, we learned how to sing "Happy Birthday" in German. Seems there are two versions of it. It was sweet to listen to everyone sing a bit off-key with their morning voices.

The fun really began after class. Ben surprised me with tickets to see an orchestra concert at the famous Gewandhaus in Leipzig. We had talked about it when we first visited Leipzig, but I kind of forgot about looking into tickets. Can I just say that I was excited? REALLY excited :-D

We took the train in the afternoon. We've discovered that we can get day train tickets for 15 Euros each with which we can ride anywhere within Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It was only an hour train ride. We arrived early and checked out an Asian market in town. Why doesn't Jena have an Asian market that awesome? Then we wandered around to find a place for dinner.

We found an Indian restaurant. I wonder if maybe I should've gone with something more traditional German, but I was really feeling Indian. Plus it reminded me of the good Indian restaurant we often ate at together with my cousins. Such a different dining atmosphere!

And the concert...I can't even express how amazing I thought it was. I don't know much about orchestral instruments and I've always thought that they must be so hard to play. I was so in awe. My mouth was open for most of the 2 hours...Ben confirms that. And I think I may have drooled.

It was a wonderful day. I missed being with family, but that's the only thing that would've made the day any better. :-D

Until my next post!

Exploring Dresden

We had another 3-day holiday. Did I just say holiday? ...I mean break/vacation because today, Monday, is Pentecost. Ben and I decided to take another little trip to the famous city of Dresden.

I've heard many people--Germans and Americans alike--praise the city, saying that it is beautiful and full of wonderful sites to see. I have to say that I agree, although I did find downtown a bit too touristy for my liking.

Someone was already tired
of taking selfies with me.

Dresden is the capital city of the state of Saxony. This is a different state than where Ben and I live, which is Thuringia. So far, I've understood (although my info source is a bit one sided) that Thuringia is famous for its special Rostbratwurst (Bratwurst with caraway seasoning in it) and Saxony is famous for its unique dialect of German (a.k.a. Germans from other states make fun of their accent)

Dresden specifically is known for its culture and history. The city-center was bombed during WWII and since then, the city has been re-building itself. It was interesting to see the mixture of old and new architecture. Most of it has much significance and symbolizes how Germany acknowledges its past but looks to a better future. For instance, this church was rebuilt using part of its ruins. It was actually re-built quite recently; it took 11 years to build and opened to the public in 2005.

Ben and I weren't sure exactly sure about everything we wanted to see. We had done some research before going, but the city was a lot bigger than Jena and I'm not much help when it comes to directions. We had some  unexpected adventures (which I think might actually be the best kinds of adventures).

Opera House

First of all, what's with the weather lately? The Saturday we were in Dresden was mid-80 degree weather and the Sunday was low-60 degree weather with rain. It made packing a bit complicated.

Zwinger: where Augustus II held big parties

So on the first day, Ben and I eventually found the tourist information center and decided to sign up for a walking tour (in English. My German's not that good yet :-/). It turned out to be some of the best €12 I've ever spent. Our tour guide had lived and worked abroad. I'm not exactly sure where, but her English was very good. And she made a lot of Trump and America jokes...it's ok. I've gotten used to it by now.

Largest Porcelain Mural in the World
Depicts the rulers of Saxony.

We learned lots about Dresden history. Fun fact: Augustus II, also known as Augustus the Strong, secretly converted to Catholicism during the time of the reformation so that he could be King of Poland--being Catholic was a criteria of being King in Poland, besides having lots of money. (He was only the ruler of Saxony and was not a king, so becoming King of Poland fixed his king-fetish) Boys will be boys...

I couldn't help it. I made Ben go back
with me so that we could take this picture.
:-D

After the tour, we wanted to climb up somewhere so that we could have a view of the city. We heard that there was an observation tower at one of the churches and it only charged a couple of Euros. Instead, we accidentally attended a church service/boys choir concert. It was actually really impressive and the pipe organ was amazing. :-O

The second day, we took a boat tour down the Elbe. We saw many castles and learned more about different architecture. Unfortunately, it rained--big time--while we were on the boat. We were really chugging along on the way back. We got back 20 minutes before we were scheduled to.

We decided to head home early since it was raining, but we can't wait to bring my mother here!

The home of Augustus II

View of Dresden Old Town from the water